WOW

This was published in the Daily Universe yesterday.... my letter to the editor soon to come!!!!

MORE HONESTY ABOUT TRUE STUDENT, ATHLETE TREATMENT

I was watching a college football game between South Carolina and Mississippi on ESPN last Thursday when a commercial caught my particular attention.

It was one advertising the University of South Carolina. The commercial centered around a young man, apparently a high-school senior, who was set to make his college choice known through a nationally-televised news conference — the same kind of absurd grasps for attention that are becoming popular for every semi-talented high school athlete.

Fans from several schools — the generic “State,” “U” and “Tech” were of course represented — watched with anticipation, with one student covering her face like she couldn’t take the intensity of the announcement.

The moment of truth finally came, and the young man jubilantly announced he would attend South Carolina to study ... (wait for it) ... international business! He even had a briefcase with the Gamecocks’ logo on it, and the television commentator made a smart comment like, “It’s really no surprise he chose South Carolina, they’ve got the top program in the country.”

I almost threw the remote at the television for the transparency of it. Besides the fact that the commercial was ridiculous, I was disgusted at South Carolina for intimating that they actually treat normal students the same way they treat student-athletes.They don’t.
No school does.

I understand that schools are anxious for prospective students to know about more than athletics, and every school across the country clearly has more to offer than football and basketball. But that doesn’t mean that they should put up the facade of having the business program and football team on equal ground.

The next time I see national media coverage of a non-student-athlete making his or her college choice will be the first.

I don’t take issue with the fact that athletes get preferential treatment — that has happened as long as there has been such a thing as a “student-athlete” — but rather with the way some schools pretend that this preferential treatment doesn’t happen.

BYU athletes are no different when it comes to receiving added benefits. Besides scholarships, they get a monthly stipend for rent and food, free clothes (especially shoes and sweatpants), and all the free and convenient academic counseling their hearts desire. I might be more incensed by this except that I don’t generally prefer to wear my pajamas to class every day. The food and rent thing, though, I think I could live with.

And even these perks aren’t enough for some athletes.
Reggie Bush, who won the Heisman Trophy and now plays for the NFL’s New Orleans Saints, and his family are currently under investigation for accepting financial benefits worth more than $100,000 from marketing agents while Bush was playing at the University of Southern California.

And, more recently, it came to light that former University of Memphis basketball player Derrick Rose had another person take his SAT exam in high school, which he used to qualify for college. He spent one year playing for Memphis and is now a star in the NBA.

Both are making lots of money, and both made lots of money for their schools, neither of which has been particularly apologetic about the scandals.

Even BYU has struggled with student-athletes in the past. Jim McMahon supposedly thumbed his nose at the Honor Code during his time at BYU, yet was suspended and subsequently expelled only after the football season ended his senior year. If McMahon wasn’t brilliant on the field, would he have lasted as long as he did? Probably not.

While most student-athletes and their colleges live by the rules and act as positive representatives of their schools, many flaunt their temporary celebrity into getting the most out of the least possible academic effort.

Though clearly inappropriate, this type of behavior sends mixed signals to high school athletes who may expect this to be the norm in college, and schools like South Carolina that promote an athlete-style life to each and every student should be wary of the real message they are sending.

WOW.